Delete comment from: The War on Guns
"do we need banks?" -- an interesting question that i would probably put to one of the LRC or mises.org writers to ask (rhetorically) and answer.
banks arose in the market much like hard money did. they serve a dual purpose in markets which exchange primarily in hard money. storage of heavy metals and loaning of large sums to productive business, in order to generate interest for depositors.
we do need some mechanism of usury in order to produce even the most basic of goods. i say this not because i know it intuitively, but because it arose in a free market.
i see nothing wrong with starting over in the realm of banking. paypal nearly accomplished this online. perhaps communities will start free banks for themselves. certainly the authorities will come knocking, but, you can be sure that they have no reason to, except at the whim of a federal reserve which means to monopolize and industrialize banking.
but such a thing would be none of their business. it would be a town or village trust. so that would be a good signal that it was high time to "shoot the bastards."
Feb 18, 2009, 2:04:00 PM